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Monkey Shines 





Monkey Shines 

Little Stories for Little Children 

By 

Bolton Hall 

Author of 

‘‘The Game of Life,” “Things As They Are,” etc. 

With Twenty-two Illustrations 
By 

Leon Foster Jones 



New York 
A, JVessels Company 


Copyright, 1904, 

By A. Wessels Company, New York 
Printed October, 1904 


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LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

DEC 2 1904 

. Copyni^nt tntry 

c^ec.a., 

CUSS XXc, Noi 
/02.^ZC 

COPY B. 



Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. 


i^Preface 

I T takes a Master, wise in the art and mystery of parables, 
to talk to a child. 

From a few glimpses of these realistic fictions, on their way 
from the philosophic story-teller to his child listeners, our in- 
ference is threefold: (1) That the humane purpose is apparent 
in these parables which has gone out from the same source of 
thought and sympathy, to reach profound problems and great 
interests of the social grown-up world; (2) that the nature 
of Truth is such that when we know how to communicate it, 
learning becomes a delight; and, (3) that here are tokens of a 
principle in the intellectual and moral nature of men and 
women, the application of which assures successful education. 
This principle was pronounced clearly by the greatest of all 
teachers, who made little children His text-book; that no brain 
and no soul can receive what it is not somehow prepared and 
ready to receive. 

F. D. Huntington. 

(Bishop of Central New York.) 


^ ■ 









fc 

9 





':^Foreword 

T hese stories have been told to the author’s children 
from their third to their tenth year, and to other children 
of various ages up to sixty. They are intended to 
amuse, and to teach also. Teaching is a foretaste of immor- 
tality — for as we teach, our thoughts are transmitted to all 
eternity. The author’s opinion is that it is not wise to point the 
moral of these stories to the hearer: such was not the method 
of the great Teacher in His parables. In some you will find 
morals yourself that the child cannot: in many his eyes will see 
what is hidden from you. If you think a child has not pointed 
the moral itself, audibly or more likely silently, try another story 
of the same class, or repeat the same one a little later, after the 
method of Jesus. If that does not do, then either the story is 
not adapted to that child or else the author has failed in his task. 
Do not be impatient if the child does not learn very fast. Per- 
haps you do not learn very fast yourself. 

To explain the moral is to make a child hate the story. 

B. H. 








Contents 


Choosing the Biggest 

1 

A Bark that Bit 

3 

All His Own 

5 

A Place for Everything 

7 

Bird’s Nesting 

9 

The Clock that Mistook Its Calling 

12 

Confidence 

14 

Dirty Children 

17 

The Fat Tortoise 

19 

The Flying Mouse 

21 

Hanschen’s Story 

24 

The Hard Lesson 

28 

Johnny Delay 

31 

Leap Frog 

34 

The Loose Pony 

36 

The Man and the Pig 

39 

Monkey Shines 

41 

The Obstinate Donkey 

44 

The Pretty Ratlet 

47 

The Quail Society 

49 


Contents 


The Robin that Thought He was Wise 

52 

The Sinker 

55 

Showing Off 

57 

Taming Wild Birds 

59 

Too Much is No Good 

61 

Trying to Help 

62 

The Wheel that Went too Fast 

64 

Willie’s School 

66 

Wild Horses 

68 

Yes, in a Minute 

72 

The Big Baby 

76 



^ Choosing the Biggest 

A PIKE is a fish with a great big mouth and long, 
sharp teeth. He can swim very fast — and he eats 
other fish. I don’t think it is nice to live by eating 
one’s little weak brothers. But the pike is made that way. 



One morning the pike went out to find some breakfast. He 

saw a lot of dear little fishes all together. There was one big 

fish with them. So he opened his mouth wide, made a jump, 

1 


2 


Monkey Shines 


and took the biggest fish down into his throat with its head 
first. It was quite a big fish and the pike could not swallow 
it all the way : it stuck in his throat, half in and half out. Then 
he tried to put it out of his mouth, but the fish was stuck fast. 
The pike began to be very much afraid: it hurt him to have 
his mouth wide open so long, and he could hardly breathe. 

He swam slowly up to where there was very little water, so as to 
be away from the other fish. He thought they would laugh at him. 

Pretty soon Bobby came along by the water. There he 
saw the pike. “Oh,” said he, “I’ll run and get my net and 
catch that fish.” So he got a net with a long stick to reach 
out, and he put it softly under the pike and — scoop ! the pike 
was caught. Now when he felt himself caught, he kicked and 
shook himself and the fish fell quite out of his mouth and slipped 
through the threads of the net and swam slowly away. It was 
not much hurt. I’m glad of that. 

Bobby took the pike up to the house and put him in the pond 
where the cows drink, and he used to go and see him there. 

The pike lived there for a long, long time, but he had no 
one to play with and no place to run about. He got very thin 
and sad. At last a great rain came. It filled up the pond till 
it overflowed and the pike swam down to the river again. After 
that, he did not try to bite off more than he could chew. You 
see the pike learned to be wiser by making one mistake. 


a 


Bark that Bit 

A SHORT dog with long, brown, curly hair used to sit 
on a cushion. His name was Bark. Doris played 
with him every day. He would run after a ball and 
bring it again, then he would bark. You could teach a little 
dog to do that too. This is the way. Wrap up a piece of rag 
into a ball and throw it near the doggie. If he runs and picks 
it up, give him a little piece of cake. If he does not, do not 
hurt him but wrap a piece of cake in the rag so that he will tear 
it to pieces to get the cake. Then pat him and say “Good 
doggie.” After a little he will learn to pick it up even if there 
is no cake. You pat him and tell him he is good. When he 
gives it to you, or even lets you take it, give him a larger piece 
of cake. 

Every day Bark had bread and milk and Doris combed his 
hair. Doris loved him. 

One day Bark was not very well: he had eaten too much. 
Doris called, “Bark, Bark, Bark!” Bark did not come. Doris 
went to him and caught his collar. Bark said “ O-w-w.” Doris 
pulled his collar. What do you think? Bark opened his 

mouth and snapped at Doris! His tooth cut her hand a little. 

3 


4 


Monkey Shines 


Doris did not cry, but ran and told her papa at once. She was 
a brave little girl. Doris’s papa said, “Too bad. Bark must 
be put in the stable”; so he went and told Bark how bad he had 
been. 

Another day Bark ran after the ball and when John called 
him, “Here, Bark, here. Bark, give me that ball,” Bark did not 
want to. John put down his hand to take it — and Bark bit 
him. 

When Doris’s papa heard that, he said, “Doris, dear, I am 
afraid to have you play with that dog any more; he is getting 
cross.” So poor Bark was sent out to the stable, and no one 
would go near him. He had no nice cushion to lie on, and in- 
stead of bread and milk to eat, he got only dog biscuit. Poor 
Bark! He could not run about and play with the children for 
they were afraid of him. They said, “ He is a cross dog, and 
bites.” Do you think Bark was sorry that he bit people ? 


lit 


His Own 

W ILLIE’S uncle went down to Florida. When you 
go to Florida, you sail out from New York and turn 
to the right, and go by the side of the sea as far 
South as you can get in the United States. There it is warm 
even in the winter time, so that oranges get ripe down there. 
Up here it is too cold. Willie’s uncle sent him a whole box of 
oranges, but he sent them by train so that they would come 
quick. Willie counted them. There were about one hundred 
and forty in the box and Willie was very glad. His mamma 
thought that oranges were good for little boys and she told him 
to eat as many as he wanted to, and he ate three for break- 
fast and two after lunch, and one after supper. They were so 
sweet and nice, he liked them. 

His mamma said she thought he had better give some of 
the oranges away, but Willie said “No, he didn’t want to,” and 
he ate his oranges. He had twenty-five cents, and he was 
going to buy a little sharp spoon to eat them with and keep 
them all to himself. He ate oranges for about four days and 
then he was invited to spend the Christmas Holidays with his 
little cousins. 


5 


6 


Monkey Shines 


His mamma told him he had better take some of the oranges 
with him. Willie said “No, if he did he would have to give 
some to his cousins and he wanted them all himself.” 

He had a nice time, playing with his cousins, and when he 
came back he went down to the cellar to get some oranges. 

He put his hand in the box and took hold of an orange. 
Puh! his fingers stuck right into it. It was all green and slimy. 
He took out another and another; every one of his oranges was 
as rotten as could be and the juice was running out of the box 
and making a bad smell. So Willie cried and cried; all his 
nice oranges were spoiled. Then he went and told his papa. 
His papa said, “That’s too bad, I’m sorry, but you know we 
can’t have a box of bad oranges down in the cellar.” Then 
said Willie, “I’ll throw it into the street.” But his papa said 
“Oh no, that wouldn’t be nice for the neighbors.” So poor 
Willie had to pay his twenty-five cents to a man to carry the 
box of oranges away in a cart and get rid of it, and what the 
man did with the box of oranges, I’m sure I don’t know. What 
do you think? 


Place for Everything 

D oris llked to cut out pictures and to paint them. 
She had a box of paints and a book with nice white 
paper. She had also a box of colored pencils, red, 
blue, green, black, and yellow, and a pair of scissors with blunt 
points. One wet day Daisy came to see Doris. Doris was 
very glad. “Now,” said she, “we will make a picture frame 
for Daisy’s papa and we will show Daisy how to help.” 

So Doris ran off to find the paints. She looked in her toy 
chest. They were not there. In her mamma’s room. No. 
In the bureau. They were not there. She and Fraulein 
looked everywhere they could think of. The paint box could 
not be found, nor the paper either. 

Then they had no more time to look for them, because 
Daisy had to go for her walk. So they said, “ We’ll play domi- 
noes.” The box of dominoes wasn’t there, either. At last 
they found it at the bottom of Doris’s toy chest. But when 
they opened it only about half the dominoes were in the box. 
“Oh,” said Doris, “I remember, I left them on the piazza.” 

So they went down-stairs for them. Little brother had been 

7 


8 


Monkey Shines 


there, and had taken a lot of them away to play with, and he 
left them, no one knew where. 

Daisy’s nurse said, “ Why can’t Doris come with Daisy for 
her walk.^ and they can play skipping rope.” Doris thought 
that would be fine, and went to find her coat and hat and gloves. 
^ Nurse had taken care of the coat and hat, and the gloves were 
finally found on the hall table. Now where was Doris’s skip- 
ping rope.^ Nowhere could it be found. “Well, the hoop, 
then,” said Fraulein. The hoop was in the hall closet, but 
where w’as the stick At last the waitress said she saw a stick 
in the fireplace; there it was, but it was partly burnt and could 
not be used. 

Daisy could not wait any longer, and nurse said she thought 
it was too late to look for any more things; so Doris was going 
without any toys. “We have to go to the Park,” said Daisy’s 
nurse, “so you had better put on your overshoes.” Doris’s 
overshoes were not in the closet, and while she was hunting for 
them, Daisy had to go. 

“It seems to me,” said Doris, “that I do nothing all day 
long but look for things.” 

Why was that ? 

You can find them in the picture if you look for them. 


V 


Bird's Nesting 

O NE day Tom was playing on the lawn and he saw a 
sparrow fly down and pick up a piece of string that 
Tom had dropped on the ground. Off it flew with the 
long string trailing out behind it and it lit in a tree. This was 
a little tree, so Tom went over there, after the sparrow flew 
away, and looked. The sparrow did not carry the string with it 
when it went out of the tree, and Tom wondered what it did with 
the string. There in the tree, under some of the branches, that 
little bird had been building a cunning nest, round and soft 
inside and lined with nice feathers. Next day, when Tom 
looked at it he saw a tiny blue egg in the nest (he had to 
watch till the sparrow had gone away so as not to frighten her), 
and once when he went up very softly, there was the mamma 
bird sitting on her nest with her wings spread over it. When 
Tom looked again there were two eggs in the nest. The next 
day he saw the papa bird flying to the nest with a worm in his 
mouth. “Oh,” said Tom, “I’m sure they must have some 
baby birds in there.” So he looked. No, not one. The papa 
bird had just brought the worm for the mamma, because she 

would not leave the nest for fear the eggs should be cold. For 

9 


Monkey Shines 


I O 


you know that when birds sit on the eggs and keep them warm 
for about three weeks (that would be one more day than you 
have fingers and toes together), then a little chick is born in the 
shell; it has no feathers and it can’t walk, it is so little; but 
after a while it grows and grows so big that the shell is too small 
for it, and out it comes, a nice little bird that soon learns to run 
about and to say “peep.” 

Tom called these birds “his little family.” Of course, they 
were not really his, except that he left nice food near for them 
to pick up, and he tried to take care of them. One day Sam 
came to see Tom, and Tom told him all about the nest. What 
do you think that stupid Sam did.^ He went right up to the 
nest and frightened the bird away and took one of the eggs 
in his hand to look at it. The egg was very little and it broke 
in Sam’s hand, and a poor little bit of a chick fell out dead. 
When Tom saw that, he was very sorry and pulled Sam away; 
but it was too late. The birds were so frightened they did not 
know what to do. They said to each other, “Why, any day 
some boy may come back and spoil our eggs, or even hurt the 
little chicks after they are born.” But, of course, Sam would 
not have done that, only the birds did not know. 

The little sparrows felt very sorry, but they were too afraid, 
so they went away and did not come back to that nest at all. 

They got some more straw and hair and string and built a 





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Bird's Nesting 


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new nest high up in a tree, where they would be safe. Tom 
used to climb up into another tree close by and look over at the 
nest and the eggs and then at the little birds in it. When the 
birds grew big enough, they flew away and built nests of their 
own. That is the end of that story. 


vi 


^ The Clock that Mistook 
Its Calling 

T here was a dock in the menagerie; you know what 
a menagerie is, where they have wild animals, — tigers, 
and bears, and wolves. The clock told what time 
the menagerie should be opened and what time the animals 
should be fed and when it was time to close up; but for fear 
they should forget, it used to strike 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 
11, 12, just like the other clocks. 

One day they got a new lion in that menagerie and the lion 
roared tremendously just like this, “ Ow-ow-ow-w-w.” The 
clock thought that was a fine noise and he would like to make 
such a noise also, so when it came time to strike, he just went 
“burr, burr, burr,” as loud as he could, but of course a clock 
couldn’t do that very long; he ran entirely down, and so the 
poor clock stopped and couldn’t go any more. 

When the menagerie man looked up, he said, “I don’t 
know what’s the matter with that clock,” and he began to poke 
things into it and put drops of oil into it and to bend its wheels 

until the clock was so sick and sorry that it thought it was 

12 


The Clock that Mistook Its Calling 1 3 


going to die. Then the menagerie man hung it up on the wall 
and said, “I guess it will go all right now.” 

And it did. 



vii 


^ Confidence 

O NE day Bobby’s papa took him out in the boat for a 
sail. They had a basket with them and when it was 
time for lunch Bobby opened the basket and set all 
the things out nicely on a newspaper, and they had lunch while 
the boat sailed along. When they had nearly finished, Bobby’s 
papa looked at the sky and saw a heap of black clouds near 
the water. He jumped up, saying, “Bobby, we are going to 
have a storm.” He pulled down the big sails, while Bobby 
stuffed all the forks and things back into the basket as fast as 
he could. The wind began to blow — “Whew, siss’ss, hoo-oo,” 
and the waves slapped against the side of the boat. The boat 
rocked and the water came over the side. Poor Bobby was a 
little afraid, but his papa said, “ Now, Bobby dear, you will do 
just as I tell you, won’t you.?^” and Bobby said, “Yes, papa.” 
So his papa told him to sit down in the very bottom of the boat. 

Still it blew harder and harder and the wind lifted sheets 
of water off the tops of the waves and threw them over the 
boat. The boat filled with water and Bobby and his papa were 
sitting in the bottom trying to bail it out when a big wave came 

over it — whoop! and down sank the boat into the sea. 

14 











Confidence 


15 


Bobby had always done just what his papa said, so when 
they fell into the cold water and his papa cried out, “ Keep still, 
Bobby,*’ Bobby did not even put out his hands. The water 
was just coming into his nose and mouth when he felt his papa’s 
arm under his head. “ Be quiet, Bobby,” said his papa. Bobby’s 
head went under the water just once, but he remembered that 
his papa said to keep still, and in a second his papa pulled 
Bobby’s arms around his own neck and began swimming 
away. 

Some men who were out fishing saw a little black thing 
jumping up and down in the water. They thought it was a 
black duck. Pretty soon one of them said, “I see two black 
things.” (That was Bobby’s head behind his papa’s.) The 
other said, “They don’t look like ducks. What can they 
be.?” 

The men rowed up, and when they came near there, it was 
Bobby and his papa in the water. So they pulled them into 
a boat and took them over to their house, and put them to dry 
and gave them some hot coffee to drink, and rubbed their hands 
and feet and put hot stones and bottles of hot water up against 
them, and scrubbed them with coarse towels and got them to 
walk up and down, and heaped bedclothes on them, pretty 
much all that were in the house, until they got well and warm 
again, and then Bobby’s papa came and kissed Bobby good 


Monkey Shines 


i6 


night, and said, “The man thought we looked like ducks, but 
we are not ducks, except that you are a nice little duck not to 
scream, and to do just what I told you, and if you had not, 
what do you think ? Both Mr. Papa and you would have been 
drowned.” 


via 


Dirty Children 

D OLLY’S name was “Smudge.” That was because 
she never looked clean. Dolly was not to blame for 
that, because she was only made of rags, and when 
she was quite new, Doris had left her out on the doorstep one 
night. It rained that night, and the rain fell on the bad people, 
if there were any, and on the good ones too. It made the color 
run in poor Dolly’s dress so that it stained her new boots. 

Would you look very clean yourself if you had been out all 
night in the rain ? 

The sun got up in the morning before Doris did, and it 
shone on Dolly’s face and made it all brown. That looks very 
well on a little girl, but not so well on a dolly. Poor Dolly! 

Doris was sorry, so she washed Dolly’s face with great care. 
She washed it with a nail brush . It did not seem to look any better. 
What do you think ? Doris said Dolly was naughty to be so dirty. 

All the dolls had a party — Bobby had a doll too, and he 
cut some new ones out of a picture paper. They were all 
clean and bright. Bobby washed his hands, and they all sat 
down to tea. Of course the tea was water with some white 

sand for sugar, and they only pretended to drink it. 

17 


i8 


Monkey Shines 


Poor Dolly lay in the corner. She could not come to table; 
that was because she was dirty. We do not have dirty people 
at table. 

Doris’s mamma came in to help the dollies to tea. She 
saw Smudge in the corner all by herself. Doris’s mamma 
took Dolly and went up-stairs with her. She got a nice, clean 
piece of cloth and sewed it over her face. Then she made 
eyes and a mouth with ink. She put a clean dress on her. 
When Smudge was brought down again, Doris said, “ Oh, how 
sweet and neat she looks; now she can come to table.” Then 
Doris looked at her own little hands. They were all dirty 
themselves. Doris went and washed them and then they all 
had a party. They had some real cake, but only Bobby and 
Doris really ate it, and they saved a piece for mamma. After 
that it was time to go to bed. Good night. 








tx 


^ The Fat Tortoise 

A BOX tortoise is a little animal which is shaped 
like a turtle. This picture is a turtle. It has a hard 
shell, just like a clam, but it has legs and a head. 



Its head looks like a bird’s head. This animal can shut himself 

up in his shell, as if it were a box, so that no one can hurt him. 

He cannot run fast, so if he could not shut himself up, cats 

or foxes would catch him and eat him. 

19 


20 


Monkey Shines 


Once two of these living boxes lived with each other and 
liked each other very much. One of them was a papa tortoise 
and the other was his wife. The wife tortoise did not want 
to do anything but eat and sleep. She did not like to run 
about nor play. So she got very fat. One day a fox came 
walking along where the tortoises were eating worms. When 
the tortoises smelt the fox, the papa tortoise shut up his shell 
as quickly as he could, and the fat one tried to shut herself up 
too — poor thing, she was so fat that her shell would not shut. 
She tried to squeeze herself in, but when her head was in there 
was no room for her foreleg, and when her leg was in there was 
no place for her head. Her hind legs would not go in at all. 

The fox smelled the tortoises too; he looked all ’round till 
he found them. Papa tortoise was shut up tight, but the fox 
caught the poor fat one and bit off her head. He said to him- 
self, “That is the fattest tortoise I ever saw.” 

“And.?” said Doris. 

“ Oh, then the papa tortoise always took great care that he 
did not get so lazy and fat.” 

“But if he did.?” 

“Then I think the fox would get him too.” 


X 


^ 77}e Mouse 

O NCE Doris’s papa was reading a book at night and 
the window was open. He heard a little soft “ squeak, 
squeak” outside, and something that flew like a bird 



came flying in. But it was not a bird. It was a little baby 
bat. Now a bat is just like a mouse, only it has wings made 
of thin skin like the skin between your thumb and first finger. 

It can see in the night and it has sharp little teeth just like 

21 


Monkey Shines 


22 


a kitten’s. There was a young lady in the room, and when 
she saw the bat she screamed and put a shawl over her head. 
“Oh!” she said, “the bat will get in my hair, and I will have to 
cut all my hair off.” But a bat would not get in anyone’s 
hair. Only foolish grown-up people think it would. When 
people don’t know, they are afraid of nearly everything. 

Doris’s papa took a soft towel and knocked the little bat 
down with it, but he made only a gentle blow so as not to hurt 
it. He would not hurt a little bat. The bat bit his hand with 
its teeth, for it thought he was going to hurt it and was afraid; 
but they were very little teeth, so Doris’s papa did not mind. 
He took a box and put a little branch of a tree in it for the bat 
to hang on with its feet, then he put the bat into it and tied a 
piece of cheese cloth over the top of the box. He cut some 
meat into little bits and held one on his finger; the bat crept 
down and opened its mouth, and with its sharp teeth ate the 
meat. 

Soon the bat was so tame that it would fly about the room 
and catch mosquitoes and flies, and when Doris’s papa held up 
a piece of meat the bat would fly down from the window cur- 
tain and eat it. 

When the days got cold, Doris’s papa opened the window 
and let it fly away. The bat flew back to the hole under the 
edge of the roof where it lived, and went to sleep. It stayed 


The Flying Mouse 


asleep all day and all night till all the snow and frost was gone 
and the days were warm again. Then it caught flies and mos- 
quitoes in the night out on the lawn. In the daytime a big fly 
called a “devil’s darning needle” caught other mosquitoes. 
(The young lady was afraid of the “devil’s darning needle” 
too, but Doris was not.) Lots of mosquitoes were caught, 
some of which would have bitten Doris if the bat and the 
“devil’s darning needle” had not caught them. 

“And then .5^” asked Doris. “Oh, I do not know any 
more,” said Doris’s papa. “Well, perhaps you will learn,” 
said Doris. “ Perhaps I will,” said her papa. 


xt 


':^Hanschei{s Story 

T here is a country that is as flat as the palm of your 

hand, when you spread your hand out. The sea 

once flowed over a great deal of that country, but 

the people, when the tides were low, fenced out the sea with 

big walls of earth and planks and stones. These walls are 

called dikes. What is the name of that country.? Holland. 

Of course it took a long time to make all those great walls, and 

now they are covered with grass and trees and inside them there 

are fields and farms and houses and streets and lots of people. 

But always the sea beats upon the outside of the dikes, so 

the people that live there have to be very careful to watch their 

walls, lest the water should soak through in a weak place or 

should wash away the earth and loosen the stones and sweep 

away the dikes and drown the people and the fields. 

In that country lived a little boy called Hanschen; Hanschen 

is Dutch for little John. Hanschen was very fond of playing 

in the boats; which was nice, only the boats generally had 

some water in them and that wet Hans’s shoes. Hanschen 

was too little to take off his own shoes and the water spoiled 

them, so his papa had to buy new shoes for him. Now Han- 

24 


Hans chert’s Story 


25 


schen’s papa knew that there were many things that he could 
buy with the money that he had to spend for shoes, so he asked 
Hanschen not to play in the boats. Hanschen told his papa 
that he would not play there, except when there was some one 
there to take off his shoes. 

One day Hanschen came home from school with his shoes 
soaking wet. The family lived in the country and Hanschen had 
to walk a long way from school. When Hanschen’s papa saw 
how wet his shoes were, he said, “Now, Hanschen, you have 
been playing in the boats again; I will have to punish you.’’ 
But if I had been Hanschen’s papa, I would not have punished 
him. I would have said, “You foolish little child, you’re too 
little to go to school alone, and will have to stay home until 
you are wiser”; or else I would have said, “Hanschen dear, you 
can’t wear shoes to school until you learn to take care of them.” 

However, Hanschen said, “No, papa, I haven’t been play- 
ing in the boats at all.” “Why, Hanschen,” said his papa, 
“you must have been; see how wet your shoes are!” “No,” 
said Hanschen, “I have not; I haven’t been near the boats at 
all — I have not.” Hanschen’s papa was angry, because he 
really thought Hanschen was saying what was not true. But 
Hanschen was not that kind of a boy — he would not tell a lie, 
any more than you would tell a lie. “Well,” his papa said, 
“how did you get your shoes so wet?” “I got them wet,” 


26 


Monkey Shines 


said Hanschen, “crossing a little stream.” “Hanschen,” said 
his papa, “you must not say such things; there isn’t any stream 
between our farm and school.” Poor Hanschen began to cry. 
“I did so get them wet crossing the stream, and there was truly 
a stream, papa.” 

Just then Hanschen’s mamma came in and asked what was 
the matter. When she heard, she said, “Hans, I don’t think 
Hanschen would say anything that isn’t true, maybe it’s a 
puddle he means.” “No,” said Hanschen’s father, “for it is 
sea water. I can see the salt dried on the black leather and it 
smells of sea water too.” “Well,” said Hanschen’s mamma, 
“Hanschen never says anything that isn’t true, and he said he 
would not play in the boat and now he says he did not. Maybe 
there really is a stream that we don’t remember, and maybe 
that salt on his shoes is only some old salt coming out from 
the time they got wet before. Wait a bit, I’m going to see.” 
So she went off on the way to the school. She had hardly got 
out of sight of the house when she began to scream, “The dike, 
the dike! the sea has broken through!” and she ran and 
screamed and screamed till all the people ran and saw the little 
stream soaking through the grass. They followed it up till 
they found where it was leaking through the dike, and they put 
boards and earth and big rocks down at the place, and drove 
trunks of trees down into the dike and so kept out the sea. 


Hanschen' s Story 


27 


If his mamma had not believed Hanschen and gone to look, 
the sea would have made the hole bigger and bigger in the 
night until the waves would have come in and flooded the 
country and drowned the people too. 

After that, I think if Hanschen had said that a trolley car 
chased him up-stairs, the people would have said, “ I don’t see 
how that could be, but if Hanschen said it, it must be true.” 


Xtl 


^ The Hard Lesson 

W HEN it was time for Harry’s lessons, he used to 
say, “I don’t want to”; “No, I’m not going to do 
lessons to-day.” Sometimes he would start to go 
to school, but instead he would stop and play in the street. 
When he had sums to do, he used to draw cats on the slate and 
never learn the figures at all, and sometimes when it was school 
time Harry would go off fishing and have a splendid time with 
a boy that he knew. 

When Harry grew up, his papa gave him a lot of money, 
and Harry put it in banks and gave it to people to take care of 
for him. But, you see, Harry could not count up how much 
he had, because he couldn’t do figures nor understand what 
the people did with his money. He had nothing to do, for 
when the other people talked about books and looked at pic- 
tures, Harry didn’t know about them, because he couldn’t 
read very well, and they didn’t like to have him with them, be- 
cause he didn’t know the things they cared about. He could 
do nothing but shoot and ride and swim, and one soon gets 
tired of doing such things as that all the time. It was pretty 

dull for Harry. So he learned to play cards to pass away the 

28 





The Hard Lesson 


29 


time. When people were poor or sick, Harry felt sorry for 
them, but he didn’t know how to do anything to help them, 
except to give them some money. Well, with the cards, and not 
knowing how to take care of his money, Harry soon lost it all. 

Harry said, “I’ll work and earn some money.” That was 
nice of him. So he went to a store and asked if they wanted 
him to work. The man who had the store said, “What can 
you do.?” “Oh,” said Harry, “I can do anything.” “Well,” 

said the man, “are you good at figures.?” “N-o,” said Harry, 
“I can’t do figures.” “Can you speak French.?” the man 
asked. “Oh, dear, no,” Harry answered, “I don’t know 
French.” “Can you play the piano?” he asked. “I don’t 
know,” said Harry; “I never tried.” The man laughed. 
“Well, can you teach children to read nicely and to do kinder- 
garten things?” “No,” said poor Harry. “Do you write a 
nice hand and spell every word right?” “Indeed I don’t,” 
said the poor boy. “Could you do carpenter work?” the man 
asked. “I could, but I don’t know how,” said Harry. “Well,” 
the man said, “I don’t know what you could do that would 
help me. I can’t have you in my store.” Harry tried to learn, 
but it’s very hard to learn when you are grown up, if you haven’t 
been used to study. 

Harry went everywhere he could think of, but all the men 
asked the same sort of questions and no one could find anything 


3 ° 


Monkey Shines 


he could do for them, so that he could get some money. After 
a while, he found a place where they wanted stones broken on 
the road. It was hot and dusty, and Harry thought, “If I 
could do something else, it wouldn’t be nearly such hard work, 
and I could get a great deal more.” 

But he never learned anything else, so he never earned any- 
thing more. 

Wasn’t that stupid.^ 


Xttl 


':^yohnny Delay 

S OME time ago there was a little boy called “Johnny 
Delay.” Why was he called that.^ Perhaps you will 
see when you hear the story. 

All his little friends were going for a picnic to a beach at the 
other side of the river. The stage was to call for Johnny at ten 
o’clock in the morning. At nine Johnny’s nurse said, “Come, 
dear, it is time to get ready.” Johnny said, “ Yes, after I find my 
ball.” The ball was lost and Johnny looked but could not find it. 

His mamma called again, “Johnny, Johnny, you will be 
late.” Then Johnny came. While his nurse was dressing 
him, Johnny would go to look out of the window and play that 
he was the stage driver. He cracked his whip and said “Gee,” 
just as if he had a horse in front of him. 

Poor nurse was trying to hurry up, and she said, “ Johnny, 
while you play like that, I can’t dress you.” Johnny did not 
stop playing. 

Just as he got his stockings on, before his face was washed 
(his face was quite dirty), the stage drove up, for it was ten 
o’clock. All the children were in it and they had a basket of 

lunch and a pail of ice cream for dessert. 

31 


32 


Monkey Shines 


The driver said, “All ready?” Johnny’s mamma ran down 
to him. She said, “Oh, I’m so sorry; Johnny is not ready yet: 
can you wait?” The driver said, “We have to catch the boat 
that goes over the river and we can wait only just two minutes. 
Will he be ready then?” 

Then Johnny’s mamma felt bad. She said, “Oh, I am 
afraid not,” and ran up-stairs to help Johnny’s nurse. Poor 
Johnny! before he got his shoes on, the driver called out, “Too 
bad, we can’t wait any more,” and off he drove with all the 
children. 

Johnny cried, and his mamma said, “I’m sorry you delayed, 
dear, but we will have some ice cream here and try to have a 
good time.” 

The children had a lovely time. They waded in the river 
and threw stones into the water and gathered flowers, and what 
do you think they found? They found a dear little turtle 
which could shut itself up in its shell. As Johnny was not 
with them, they said, “We will take it home to Johnny.” 

Poor Johnny! he was all alone at home because nurse was 
going out to see her cousin and his mamma was busy. They 
had ice cream for lunch and it was very good, even though 
some of Johnny’s tears fell into his plate. He could not forget 
the picnic. 

Always after that, Johnny would dress first and play after- 





I * 



Johnny Delay 


33 


wards, and whenever anyone was coming for him, Johnny was 
ready on the steps. 

Then he was Johnny Already. 


XIV 


Leap Frog 

A LITTLE toad went to see a frog that lived down 
by a pond. The toad said, “What shall we play.?^” 
“Oh,” said the frog, “let us play jumping into the 
water.” Well, of course toads don’t much like to jump into 
the water, but he was too polite to say that he wouldn’t, so he 
jumped into the water and climbed out again, until the poor 
little toad was ill. 

Next ^ay the frog came to see the toad, so as to return his 
visit, and he said to the toad, “What shall we play.?^” “Oh,” 
said the toad, “let’s play rolling in the dust, it’s so warm and 
nice; that’s great fun.” Well, because the toad had done 
what the frog wanted him to do, on his visit, the frog could 
not say no, and he had to roll in the dust. Frogs hate dust more 
than anything else, and he went home just as sick as the toad 
had been. 

After that they both began to think, “How foolish we were”; 
and the next time the one visited the other he asked, “What 
would you like to do?” until they found something that suited 
both of them, and that was playing leap-frog. One would sit 

down and the other would put his hands on his head and jump 

34 


a 








35 


heap Frog 


over him, and then it would be the other one’s turn. Doing 
that, they had great fun, and got to love each other just as well 
as you love me and I love you. 


XV 


^ TAe Loose Pony 

B obby had a nttle pony. He used to take care of it him- 
self and give it hay and oats, but not too much oats ; and 
he used to comb its hair and climb up on its back to ride. 
One day Mary, the cook, left the garden gate open, and 
the pony found it open, and in he walked. He knew that 
Patrick, the coachman, would drive him out as soon as he saw 
him, but there were lots of ears of corn and apples and peas 
and green fruit just near the gate. 

So the pony made haste and took a big apple, and swallowed 
it down without even biting it with his teeth; then he grabbed 
some peas and quick down they went; then a bite of squash 
and of beans and of turnips and of everything, as quickly as he 
could. He did not chew them one bit, but just gulped them 
down whole, for he saw John coming with a whip. 

When John came up he said, “ Dear me ! I am afraid Mary 
left that gate open.’’ Then he waved the whip and made a 
great noise with it, “ Crack, crack,” but he did not try to hit 
the little pony. The pony ran out at once, and John shut the 
gate. 

But the pony said to himself, “ I don’t care. I had a lot of 

36 


The Loose Pony 


37 


good things to eat.” Well^ quite soon he began to feel very 
ill. He did not want to run any more; his poor head hung 
down and his stomach was so sick. He lay down and curled 
himself up, but he could not go to sleep; it felt just as if he had 
a big stone in his stomach. 



Patrick came to give him his supper. The pony could not 
eat one bit of the supper. Patrick looked at him. “Why,” 
said Patrick, “that pony has been eating too fast, he has colic.” 
So he got such a stiff, hard brush and rubbed him all over and 
over with it. He took a big lump of medicine in his hand and 
opened the pony’s mouth and pushed it all the way down the 


38 


Monkey Shines 


pony’s throat. Then he put a blanket over him and stood 
there with a whip, and made the pony walk round and round 
and round and round the yard, round and round and round, 
till he could hardly walk any more. 

Then he put the poor pony to bed without any supper. All 
that was to make the pony well. It was three whole days be- 
fore the pony could go out and run and have his nice food again. 

Always after that the pony would bite his food with his 
sharp teeth and chew it all up and grind it in his mouth till it 
was soft. Then he was as well as could be and ran all over the 
fields so fast you could hardly see his legs. 

Little boys have more sense than ponies have. 


xvt 


':^The Man and the Pig 

A MAN went out for a walk with a pig. When they 
came to the railroad track the man looked up the 
track and down the track and said to the pig, “ Don’t 
go so fast, there is a train coming.” People think pigs can’t 
talk, because people can’t understand what pigs want to say; 
but I have heard pigs grunt much like a man, and I have heard 
men speak like pigs — so perhaps pigs can talk; anyhow, this 
pig said, “I will go fast,” and went on. “ Boom-petty-boom- 
petty- whiz,” came the train, and the pig had just almost got up 
to the track, but not quite, so the train went safely past. 

They had to cross the track again coming back, and of 
course the man looked up the track and down the track to see 
if a train was coming, and he listened too. There away down 
the track he saw a train. So he said to the pig, “Go faster, 
there is a train coming.” “I won’t at all,” said the pig. “You 
told me last time not to go so fast, but I did and I got over all 
right.” So the pig went as slow as ever, and just as he got 
over the rail the train went “ Whiz-boom-pettity-boom ” past, 
and almost hit him, but not quite. 

Near the man’s house there was a trolley car, and when they 

39 


40 


Monkey Shines 


came near it the man looked to see if a car was coming, and 
there was one at the top of the hill. The man said to the pig, 
“Look out for the trolley car.” But this was a pig, not a wise 
boy, so he answered, “You are always telling me to do something 
and I won’t do any more of the things you say.” The pig 
walked on without ever looking, and the trolley car hit the 
poor pig and ran over him and ground him all up. The man 
gathered up the little bits of the pig and cried over him and 
made a whistle out of the pig’s tail. That was the end of 
the pig. 


XVti 


Monkey Shines 

B obby had a little monkey; his name was Midas Chrys- 
olenous, but he did not know that, so was called 
“Jocko.” He had a cunning little red golf coat made 
of velvet. It was only the size of this page, because that is 
all the size the monkey was, but his tail was longer than that. 
He could catch on to things by his tail and swing by it, which was 
very delightful. He liked to sit on top of the door, when the 
door was open, and to jump from it to the gas fixture or onto 
Bobby’s shoulder, and he had lots of little tricks. He would 
climb up on the back of your chair and tickle your ear or hide 
nuts in your pocket. He would peep into the sugar bowl and 
put a lump of sugar into a little pocket in his cheek, and then 
pretend to wipe his mouth with a napkin, so that everybody 
said what a dear, cunning little monkey he was. 

Everybody said that so often that he thought he must be 
a very smart monkey and was always trying new tricks. Pretty 
soon he did some things that were not nice. He spilled the 
sugar on the table, he put his little hands in the water^nd put 
them on Bobby’s clean collar, and pulled Bobby’s papa’s 

necktie out. He knocked a vase off the mantelpiece and 

41 


+ 2 


Monkey Shines 


dropped bits of paper into the teacups. All day long he would 
be up to some monkey shines Grandmamma said he would 



bring down her gray wig in sorrow to the grave. You see, he 
was only a monkey, so he did not know that those things made 
trouble for people and that someone had to clean up after him. 
At last he took a little golf stick that he had; not a real goK 


Monkey Shines 


43 


stick, but just a pretending one, and put it in the syrup jug and 
jumped with it on Bobby’s mamma and made a great spot on 
her dress, though he only meant to run off with the stick and 
lick the syrup on it. So Bobby’s papa said, “That monkey is a 
perfect nuisance, we must send him to the Central Park Zoologi- 
cal Garden.” Poor Jocko had to go, shut up in a basket, and 
he was put in a cage. There was no one there to put him in 
their pockets nor to rub his sweet little head and pet him. 
Bobby used to go to see him sometimes, but there was no one 
to play tricks on there. 

When he had been shut up about a year Bobby was there 
one day with his papa, and poor Jocko sat down in the corner 
of his cage and wept so quietly and sadly that Bobby’s papa 
said, “We must really take Jocko home. I think he will be 
wiser now.” 


And he was. 


XVtll 


:^The Obstinate Donkey 

T ommy had a nice little donkey and a cart, and he 
used to go out driving the donkey, all by his own self 
and nobody with them, and when he would pull the 
rein that he held in one hand, the donkey would go to the right, 
and when he would pull the other rein, the donkey would go 
to the other side. Only he had to pull gently, you know, so as 
not to hurt the poor donkey’s mouth, and when he pulled both 
reins together, the donkey would stop. The donkey’s name 
was Neddy. Now, poor Neddy hadn’t much sense. He was 
only a donkey, and one day when Tommy went out with him 
the donkey said, “I am just going to do what I wish, and not 
what Tommy wants me to do at all.” So when Tommy pulled 
the rein on one side, the donkey went the other way, and when 
Tommy said, “Get up!” the donkey stopped short. And 
when Tommy pulled both reins to make the donkey stop, that 
moment, the donkey went on. Then Tommy gave him a little 
knock with the whip, not so as to hurt him, you know, but just 
to say, “You mind what I tell you.” Now, the donkey would 
not mind one bit. He just cocked up his ears and stood stock 

still. He wouldn’t go forward or even sidewise or back, no 

44 


The Obstinate Donkey 


45 


matter what Tommy did. A boy came along and told Tommy 
to push on the reins; that was foolish. 

Tommy got out of the wagon and ran home and told Patrick 
about the donkey. “Ho, ho,” said Patrick, “I’ll soon fix him.” 
So he came out there where the donkey was, and he brought a 
hammer and a big stick with him. Do you think he beat the 
donkey with the stick No. It would not do any good to beat 
the donkey, any more than it would to beat little children. He 
made the stick sharp and he hammered it in the road, right where 
the donkey was standing, and he tied the donkey there. Then 
he went away. Well, the donkey stood there and stood there, 
and pretty soon he thought, “ I would like to go home and have 
my dinner.” No, he was tied fast. Then he thought, “It is 
very uncomfortable standing here so long and I want to go 
home.” He could not get away at all. Then he began to bray, 
“Yeh, heh, yeh, heh!” Patrick did not take any notice. The 
donkey was getting very tired, and very thirsty, and very hungry, 
and very sorry, but there he had to stand. You see, when he 
would not go the right way, then he could not go at all. How- 
ever, when it began to get dark, Patrick came out and pulled up 
the stick that he had fastened in the ground, and pulled round 
the rein on one side. The donkey went that side. Then Pat- 
rick pulled both lines and the donkey stopped. Patrick said 
“Go!” and the donkey went trotting off as quickly as he could. 


46 


Monkey Shines 


and when he got to his stable, he was so thirsty and so hungry 
and so tired. Ever after that he used to do just what Tommy 
wanted him to do, because Tommy knew better; so you see the 
donkey was a great deal wiser than many grown-up people. 
Because when he had learned his lesson he knew it, and grown- 
up people don’t always. 









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xtx 


^ The Pretty Ratkt 

T here was a llttle rat which lived in a hole. It was a 
plain sort of a little rat and did not know much, but all 
the other rats liked its papa and its mamma. 

When company came, they used to say, “Oh, what a dear 
little ratlet!” because that pleased the ratlet’s mamma; and, 
“Isn’t he cunning!” “What a cute little chap!” “Isn’t he 
like his papa!” Then he learned some little tricks and would 
do them for the visitors, and they would all say, “ What a bright 
little rat he is,” and “How nicely he does them all.” 

And he thought how smart he must be. But really they were 
only things that anybody could do. Well, of course he was a 
tiny little rat and people would cry out, “What a pretty little 
dear!” That was only because he was so little: he wasn’t truly 
very pretty. 

When he grew big he kept on thinking that he was just as 
cunning and smart and pretty as everybody had said. So he 
always walked with his nose turned up at every one else, as if he 
were nicer and better than they. 

The other young rats did not like that, so they ran races with 

him, and he found that plenty of other rats could run faster than 

47 


48 


Monkey Shines 


he could, and could jump farther and climb higher, and knew 
more games and everything. Yet every time he went home, 
some of his friends would say, “How nice he is,” or something 
like that, and he thought he was, and so he quite looked down on 
other little rats. So they would not play with him at all nor lend 
him their toys; that was not kind of them, but it is the way some 
people do. 

After Ratlet had had a horrid time for years and years, he 
got some sense. That is the only way foolish people can get 
sense; and he found out that even if you are pretty and smart, 
people won’t play with you and amuse you if you are always 
trying to make them think how fine you are. 

After that he always had a splendid time. 


^ The ^ail Society 

Q uails are smart little birds. When night comes the 
quails in the grass say “Hoo-weet, hoo-weet.’* That 
means “ Come here, come here,” and all the other quails 
make an answer that sounds like “ wet-my-feet,” but that is not 
what it means at all. The quails know that it means “I will 
come, I will come.” 

Then it gets dark and every little quail sits down on the 
ground. He does not sit down alone; if he did he would get cold 
and stiff and he would not be safe. 

But all the little quails sit down so as to make a ring, with 
their tails in the center. Every little bird touches two other little 
birds; so they all keep each other warm, and on every side there 
are bright little eyes and sharp little ears. You can’t see the 
quails’ ears because they are covered up with feathers, but if a 
cat goes on his tiptoes creeping in the grass, and comes to where 
the quails are asleep, one looks up and shakes his brown wings, 
and, “ Whir-r ! whir-r ! whir-r ! ” all the wings go at once and all the 
quails have flown away, clear off to another field. 

Once, when it got dark, some of the quails began to think, 

“ I won’t go to the ring to-night; there will be quails enough, even 

49 


5 ° 


Monkey Shines 


if I don’t go.” Some more said, “ I’m too tired now, I won’t go” ; 
and one said, “ Sometime I will go, but not now.” 

So there were only three quails who were wise and sat down 
in the ring that night, but the three sat with their tails in the ring 
and their heads out, just the same as if there were a lot there. 
The rest of the quails sat down in the grass, each one all alone 
by its own self. 

The frost came and it got very cold, so that all their poor little 
legs and wings began to get quite stiff with the cold. 

When it was chilly and dark, a big wildcat came out of its 
hole in an old tree. Now cats can see very well in the night. 
You can’t see in the dark, but cats’ eyes are made so that they 
can. This cat walked about the field till he saw a quail on the 
ground all by itself. He went quite around to see which way 
the quail could look, and when he got at its back, jum'p, he caught 
the poor little bird and ate him up. 

Then he went to another one and crept up behind him too 
and caught him; then he went to another and another till he came 
to the place where the three quails sat back to back. He went 
to one side — there were quick little eyes to see him and sharp 
little ears to hear him. He went round to the other side — there 
the other little quail could see and hear him ; and he went round 
and round again, but every way he found eyes and ears in front 
of him. 


The ^ail Society 


So the big cat went close up, as quiet as a mouse — so gently 
— so slow — so soft — so still (show with the fingers) — when, 
“whir! whir!” all the wings went and the birds flew far away. 
All the other quails heard too and flew away with them. 

Ever since that all the quails in a field sit in big rings so that 
they can always have some one on the lookout for cats. 

“Is that a true story, papa.?” 

“The quails really do that way. All the stories that I tell you 
are just as true as that,” said Doris’s papa. 


/yj /V/» / 
u\ t/v 


^ The Robin that Thought 
He was fT tse 

R obin was a nttle bird. He had a beautiful red breast, 
but round the sides of his mouth was all yellow, just as 
if he had been eating egg and had forgotten to use a nap- 
kin. That showed that he was very young. 

(He really had been eating egg when he was in the shell, but 
that was not what made his mouth yellow. I think his mouth 
was yellow so that his mamma could see it more easily.) 

His tail was quite short and his wings were round. 

The first day he left the nest he was very much afraid and did 
all that his papa told him, so he got on very well and learned to 
fly a little, to hold on to the trees and to hop quite well. 

One day he went out with his mamma to learn to fly. She 
showed him how to spread out his wings and hop from one 
branch down to another, and light with his wings closed up. He 
did this two or three times, till he could do it very well. 

“Now,” said Robin, “I know how to fly.” “Not quite yet,” 
said his mamma, “but you will learn.” “Yes, I do know how,” 

said Robin. So he spread out his wings and hopped off the tree. 

52 


The Robin that Thought He was Wise 5 3 


Poor little bird — he flapped his wings very hard ; but his head 
went down and his tail went up, and down he fell on the ground. 

There he lay quite still. He could not move, for the fall hurt 
him so much. 

His mamma screamed “ Geep, geep,” and flew down to him. 
Poor Robin could not get up. After he had lain there a long time, 
he was able to hop a little bit; but although he tried very hard, 
he could not get up to the nest. Now it was near night and 
Robin’s mamma had to go back to his little brothers and sisters 
to keep them warm. So she got poor Robin up on a fence where 
the dog could not get him and the cat might not see him, and his 
papa sat in a tree just above him to watch. Robin was cold and 
very much afraid, and the night seemed as long as a whole year. 

The dog barked and Robin thought it would catch him. But 
it did not. 

When morning came Robin’s papa and his mamma brought 
him some breakfast and then they talked to him; they said he 
must jump with his legs and flap his wings. Robin tried it; he 
got up a little way in the air; his papa had made him go to a place 
where there was nice soft grass to fall on. 

Then he tried again and again, and once when he made a 
great try his papa and his mamma flew beside him and helped 
him with their wings so that he got clear up to a branch near the 
nest. He hopped in and lay down. His little brothers said 


54 


Monkey Shines 


“Beep, beep.” That meant, “We are so glad Robin is back 
again.” But Robin was asleep; at least he looked as if he were 
asleep. 


xxtt 


':^The Sinker 

A ll the boys and girls at the hotel were going to bathe 
in the sea. Bobby was going with them, and afterwards 
they were all to go off for a sail in a boat and to catch 
some fish. Some of the boys could swim, and when they asked 
Bobby if he could swim, too, he did not like to seem stupid, so 
he said “Yes, I can.” One of the boys said, “He can’t swim, 
he is too little,” but Bobby said yes, he could swim. But he 
could not really. 

They all went down to the beach and they took off their 
clothes in the bathing-houses and went in. Now there was a 
deep place quite near the shore, and of course the boys knew all 
about it. However, as Bobby said he could swim in deep water, 
no one thought to say anything to him about the deep hole, so 
poor Bobby walked straight into it and sank down in the water. 
He did not all sink down at once, because a fat little boy will not 
sink at first in water, but he let his face go down and the water 
went into his throat and into his nose. Then he sank under 
the water. 

A gentleman, who liked to teach the boys to swim, jumped 

quickly into the water and dived and dived down till he found 

55 


56 


Monkey Shines 


poor Bobby and pulled him out. Then he held him right up in 
the air by his feet and let all the water run out of his chest and 
out of his mouth. He tied a string round Bobby’s tongue and 
made it stick out of his mouth, so that it would not fall back into 
his throat and stop the breath from coming. For Bobby could 
i not do anything : he was white and cold and lay quite still. The 
gentleman laid him down on his back, and lifted his arms up and 
let them go down again, so many, many times. Two men rubbed 
his feet and hands. They put a big coat round him and got hot 
bricks to put against his skin. After nearly an hour, while they 
were still working at him, Bobby opened his eyes and moved just 
a little bit. “ Oh! ” said the gentleman, “ I am so glad; I was 
afraid he was not going to get well at all.” 

After that, they took him home and Bobby had to stay in bed 
for three days. He could not go fishing nor sailing with the 
others, and when he got better, his mamma would not let him go 
bathing again for ever so long; she was so frightened. All the 
boys used to call Bobby “the Sinker” after that. 

But Bobby did learn to swim later; then he could go in the 
deep water and he was not afraid to go in boats, and even his 
mamma was not afraid to let him. 


I 


XXllt 


Showing Off 

O NCE a white cat went to see a blue dog. Now, dogs 
are nice when they are blue, although people are not; 
and the dog showed a lot of tricks that he had learned. 
He could throw a piece of bread up in the air, and catch it in his 
mouth as it fell. He could walk on his hind legs and beg, and 
he could jump over a chair. And he could also run after a stick 
and bring it back. These were very pretty tricks and everybody 
said, “What a dear, smart little dog he is!” The cat thought, 
“I must do some tricks too.” So when the dog (this was Wag, 
you know) came to see the cat, the cat wanted to show him some 
tricks; and what do you think she did — she scratched the screen 
with her paw and knocked a vase down off the shelf; she drank 
the cream that was on the table, and finally jumped up on the 
writing desk and put her paw into the ink, and walked all over 
the table-cloth with her black paw. You never saw such a 
sight in your life! 

Pretty soon her mistress came in. Do you think she said 
“What pretty tricks” } No, indeed; she called Patrick and said, 
“ Patrick, take that cat and put her in a bag and carry her thirteen 

miles away from here and drop her on the side of the road, so 

57 


58 


Monkey Shines 


that we will never see her again.” So, of course, Patrick took 
her away, and everybody thought that was the end of the cat. 
But the cat came back, after being cold and hungry, hunted by 
dogs, and tired and wet and frightened. You never saw such a 
sight in your life ! 

However, by that time she had learned some sense — that 
is the way stupid people have to learn. 



* -I 




xtv 


^ Taming ild Birds 

D oris used to go out in the park to see the little birds and 
the squirrels, and whenever she went she took some 
crackers or corn, or some -nuts or canary seed, or some- 
thing like that, and then she used to throw whatever she had 
down on the ground and then go away a little distance and stay 
quite still, and the little birds would come flying, flying down, 
and pick up the crumbs. Then she would walk a little bit nearer, 
but very gently, only a little nearer, step, step, step at a time. 
And next day she would throw some more food; so that the birds 
learned after a while to look for the little girl that always had 
something for them, and they would come flying down, coming 
nearer and nearer where she threw the crumby, until one day a 
little bird made a little hop and fluttered his wings and pulled a 
piece of bread out of her fingers. 

The squirrels had learned long ago to come and take nuts 
out of her hand, because they knew she would not hurt them. 
But one day a squirrel came when she was sitting on a bench in 
the park and jumped up on the bench beside her. He came 
over, shaking his little tail, and saying, “ Gluck, gluck,” and she 

put her hand in her pocket and took out a nut and gave it to him 

59 


6o 


Monkey Shines 


to eat. He cut it open with his sharp teeth, and when it was all 
eaten he poked his head right into her pocket and pulled out 
another one his own self. 

So Doris used to go and have the squirrels walking all over 
her and the little birds playing around her. They were not one 
bit afraid, because they knew that she would not hurt them, and 
do you know, when you go to the park, you can do just that, too, 
and get the squirrels and birds to come around you, and they 
will learn to be very sorry when you do not go to walk in the park. 





XXV 


^ Too Much is No Good 

B obby was very fond of potatoes. One day there were 
mashed potatoes for lunch and his mamma showed him 
how to make a little hill out of the potato and to make a 
hole on the top of it and put some butter and salt into it, so as to 
make it nice. When he had finished his helping of potato, his 
mamma said, “Isn’t that good.?^” “Yes,” said Bobby, “I want 
some more.” Bobby’s mamma said, “I don’t think you had 
better have any more Bobby, there — ” But before she could 
finish what she was saying, poor Bobby began to cry, “I will 
have some more potato. You give me some more potato.” 

His mamma said, “ Very well, you can have some more, but I 
don’t think it’s wise,” so she gave him a lot more and Bobby ate it, 
and it was very good. Then the plates were taken away and some 
pudding was brought in. Now Bobby didn’t know about the pud- 
ding, and he had eaten so much potato that he could only take a 
little bit. He said, “ I think I could eat some if I went out and 
walked round the block.” But it was raining, so he thought it 
better not to try. And afterwards there was ice cream and cake, 
and poor Bobby had to be excused and go away from the table, 
because he really couldn’t eat even a little bit of the ice cream and 

cake. Indeed, he felt a little sick even then. Poor Bobby! 

61 


xxvi 


^ Trying to Help 

R OBIN’S sister fell out of her nest. It was cold and she 
was afraid that a cat might come along and eat her up. 

A mouse found the little robin and he thought he 
would build it a nest. So he dug a hole in the ground and put 
some hay and straw in the bottom of it. Then he asked the 
robin to get into it. But the robin was frightened and said, 
“Peep, peep, peep.” 

A chicken came along and said, “That is not the way to build 
a nest. I’ll build her one.” So he got some sticks and feathers 
and leaves and made a nest on the ground and asked the robin 
to get into it. But the robin didn’t think it was a nest at all. 

Then a squirrel came and he said, “ Why, those are very nice 
nests for rats and chickens, but if you want to make the robin 
comfortable, you must do as robins are used to do!” So he took 
the sticks up to a little fork in the tree and twisted them in to- 
gether, and he carried hay and straw and put them into the bottom 
of it and around the sides, and the feathers in the middle. Then 
he said to the little robin, “Now, jump up on that tree.” The 
robin fluttered up. “Now,” said he, “jump up from one branch 

to another.” So the little robin jumped up. Then he said, 

62 


Trying to Help 


63 


“Take a little fly over the tree.” After trying three times the 
robin got into the nest that the squirrel had made. It was not 
just like a robin’s nest, but it was nearly like it, and the robin lay 
down quietly in it and went to sleep. 

After awhile her papa and mamma came and fed her and 
kept her warm, and they said, “What a wise little squirrel that 
was to And out what people want, and then do things that way, 
so as to make them happy.” 

The robin grew up and had robins of her own, and very likely 
that robin that you saw was one of those very robins. 


xxvtt 


^ The Pf^heel that mt 
too Fast 

L ook inside my watch. Do you see that little wheel? 
Well, that’s going round, but it goes so slowly that you 
can’t see it go. That’s the way it ought to go. Now, 
look on the other side. Do you see that little hand? That’s 
the hand that tells the seconds. See how quick it goes. “Tick, 
tick, tick, tick,” that’s just the way it ought to go. 

There was a little wheel in another watch that wanted to go 
as fast as the second hand ; so off it started all on its own account, 
and the watch, instead of saying “tick, tick, tick,” and telling 
what time it was, as all good watches do, began to say “buzz, 
buzz,” and you couldn’t tell what it was saying at all. 

The little girl that owned the watch (you see she was such a 
careful little girl that her papa had given her a watch) took it 
to a watchmaker. He looked at it through a funny little glass 
that he stuck up to his eye and said, “ Oh, T see what the matter 
is; that little wheel has broken loose; I guess it is no good.” So 
he took the watch to pieces and took out the little wheel and 

smashed it into bits and threw it into a heap of scraps of brass. 

64 


The hVheel that Went too Fast 65 


Now, it happened that the scraps of brass were sold to a man 
that melted them all up again; and do you know that the brass 
was made into another little wheel and put in a new watch, and 
ever after that it went in such a beautiful way that it was the best 
wheel in the watch. 


XXV Hi 


':^ff^illte's School 

W ILLIE went to school, and a very nice school it was, 
and he could have learned lots of things; only Willie 
didn’t like arithmetic and wouldn’t study it, so, of 
course, he didn’t learn that. He wouldn’t study his letters 
either, and when he got to be a great big boy, nearly as big as 
you are, he couldn’t read one word. He wouldn’t study his 
botany nor his natural history. He thought it was more fun to 
play; and so it is, if you don’t know any better. Little lambs 
play all day long; but then they are good for nothing except to 
make wool and mutton, and Willie was growing up a little mut- 
ton-head with his wits all wool-gathering. 

One day he went to buy some apples. He had just twenty- 
five cents. He asked the woman how much were the apples. 
She said, “Two cents each.” Well, Willie thought that when he 
was buying a lot of apples, he ought to get them cheaper than 
two cents each, so he counted up on his fingers as well as he 
could, and then said, “ I will give you twenty-five cents for nine 
apples.” “All right,” said the woman, so she put the apples in 
a bag and took the twenty-five cents, and Willie went off. When 

he told his papa, he said, “You ought to have had twelve apples 

66 


Willie’s School 


67 


and a half for twenty-five cents, if they are only two cents each, 
and I suppose if you had asked for fifteen for your twenty-five 
cents, you would have got them.’* “Oh,” said Willie, “I see; I 
was thinking that nine and nine made thirty.” Well, that very 
afternoon, one of the boys told Willie that the hazel-nuts were 
ripe. “Aha!” thought Willie, “if I didn’t get apples enough, 
I will get hazel-nuts anyhow.” So he asked the boy where the 
nut bushes were, and the boy told him, and Willie went off to get 
them. Do you know that foolish little fellow walked right past 
the hazel-nuts bushes (he thought they grew on big trees) and 
into a whole clump of poison ivy, and got himself so stung with 
it that he had to be all covered over with ointment, and it was 
about a week before he could run about and play. 

When he got well, he went off for a ride on his bicycle, and when 
he had gone a good way, he didn’t know which way to turn to get 
home, so he went on until he came to a place where two roads crossed. 
There was a sign-board up there and Willie looked at it and looked 
at it, but you see he couldn’t read and didn’t know what it said, 
and when he asked people, they would point there and say, “ Why, 
there it is up there, that’s where you are going,” and Willie didn’t 
know any more than he did before. Finally a little girl came 
along, a little bit of a girl, and poor Willie was so ashamed 
that he had to ask her to read the sign-board for him, and she 
laughed at him. That wasn’t either pleasant or polite. 


/yt /yi f /yi 


Horses 

O VER where the sun goes down, there are fields so big 
that you can ride all day without seeing even one fence. 
In these fields there are wild horses. They have no 



stables and no one to take care of them ; they just eat the grass that 

grows in the field. When the snow is all over the ground the horses 

poke it up with their noses and find the old grass lying under it. 

68 


Wild Horses 


69 


There are big wolves there that can run very fast. Wolves 
are like large, fierce dogs. They eat wild horses, and when the 
snow is deep the poor horses’ feet stick in it; but the wolves are 
not so heavy and can run over the top of the snow to catch the 
horses. 

The horses are wise ; what do you think they do when wolves 
come.P All the big horses stand in a ring with their heels out 
and their heads in, and in the middle of the ring are the baby 
horses and their mammas. 

The hungry wolves come to get a horse for supper. All the 
horses are standing in a crowd. The wolves say “Ow-ee-ee”; 
that means “How hungry we are.” At once all the big horses 
make a ring and turn their heels out. A wolf comes up — kick! 
Two feet go out at him. He goes to the other side — kick! Two 
other feet go out. Every side the wolves go they find two kicking 
feet. Now, if a big horse kicked a wolf or a person with its two 
feet it would knock him down and break his bones, so the wolves 
are afraid. After a while they run away. 

“Are there cows in those fields too?” 

“Yes.” 

“Do the wolves eat the cows ?” 

“Yes; if they can catch one that is too sick to go with the 
others, and is all alone.” 


“Do the cows kick too?” 


70 


Monkey Shines 


“No; cows don’t always do the same as horses. Didn’t you 
ever notice that when a horse gets up, it lifts up its front legs first; 
but when a cow gets up, it lifts up its hind legs first Well, the 
cows do this in their own way too; the cows make a ring just 



like the horses, with the calves inside, only the cows stand the 
other way, with their tails in and their heads out. 

“ I know why they do that.” 

“Why.?” 

“ So that they can stick their horns in the wolves if the wolves 


come. 



JVild Horses 


71 


“That’s it. Each one takes care of its brothers and sisters 
and so is safe itself.” 

“That’s nice.” 


\/i /yj 
i/V i/V 4/V 


in a Minute'' 

A RABBIT lived in a hole down by a lake. He had five 
young rabbits and the oldest one was called Bunny; 
that was because Bunny was all the name he had. At 
the bottom of the hole, his papa and his mamma had dug out a 
nice, round place where they could all lie together and keep each 
other warm. They had no spade, so they had to dig with their 
fore-feet like a dog. No one could find them when they were in 
the hole; for the hole was down under the roots of the trees. 
When the night was gone, and the sun came out, they used to go 
out to take a walk and get some breakfast; but they had to look 
out for foxes and hawks. Because foxes and hawks eat little 
rabbits. 

One day a hawk flew over them and Bunny’s mamma told 

him that he must snug down at once in the grass and be as still 

as if he were a stone. Then the hawk did not see him and flew 

far away. After that Bunny came out and ate some clover and 

they all went home to sleep. The next day when they had gone 

out in the road Bunny heard his mamma call, “Come, Bunny; 

come. Bunny”; but Bunny was looking at a bird. He said, 

“Yes, in a minute.” You could not have known that this was 

72 


73 


^‘Tes, in a Minute'"’ 


what he said, but rabbits know what each other say. The little 
bird ran along as if it had hurt its wing. It said, “ Peep, pee-eep, 
peep,” with its poor wing on the ground. Then Bunny’s mamma 
ran off with her little white tail sticking up behind. 



Bunny heard a strange noise: he thought, “That must be a 
hawk,” so he snuggled down in the grass. Just then a big foot 
came crunch, right on Bunny’s leg — it was the foot of a little 
boy who was walking along and not a hawk at all. The little 
boy’s name was Tommy. Now it was Tommy that had scared 
the bird, for that bird was a snipe and it had its nest with its 
young ones quite near there. When Tommy came the snipe 



7 + 


Monkey Shines 


thought Tommy would find her nest, so she made believe she 
was hurt and ran on the road with her wing on the ground, so 
that Tommy would go after her and away from her nest. Mamma 
rabbit saw her and knew some one must be near; that was why 
she called “Bunny,” but Bunny did not know that at all. 

Poor Bunny! his leg was sore where the boy tramped on it, 
and he could not run or walk. Tommy did not mean to hurt 
Bunny. He is a kind boy, so he picked Bunny up and put him 
inside his coat. 

When he got home he got a clean box and some hay and put 
Bunny in it. Bunny was so lame for a long time that he could 
not even creep. Tommy brought him good things to eat; but 
Bunny had to stay in the box and he wanted so much to go back 
to his little brothers, and play tag with them in the grass as he 
used to do. 

After a long, long time, his foot was well again. Then 
Tommy came with his papa and lifted Bunny up by his ears. 
That is the best way to lift little rabbits; but Bunny thought they 
were going to hurt him, so he tried to get away. But Tommy 
held him, and put him inside his coat and went out in the field. 

There he let Bunny run off, and he ran and ran till he found 
his own hole and his papa and his mamma. After that he al- 
ways listened to what his papa and his mamma said and did it 
at once, without waiting even one minute. For he said to him- 


75 


TeSy in a Minute ” 


self, “They are so kind, that they would not tell me to do any- 
thing that I did not need to do.” 

You see Bunny’s papa and mamma were very wise indeed. 


/Y* ^ 1 

i/V iA i/V I' 


^ The Big Baby 

T here was once a baby who was very large for his age. 

But he was only a baby, just the same. I won’t 
tell you his name, because it is better to learn the 
names of wise and nice people than of silly ones, isn’t it ? He 
was nearly as big as your papa, and mamma said that as he was 
such a great big fellow, he could have long trousers and a neck- 
tie, and comb his own hair and everything, just like a grown- 
up person. So all the people thought he was really a young 
man. One day some one came to see him and asked at the 
door if he was in, so he came down to the parlor to see his 
company. 

Well, the company said, “ How do you do } ” just as nicely 

as possible. What did that big boy do but run behind his 

mamma’s dress and never say a word. (You see he was only 

a baby.) However, the company was too polite to say anything 

about it and they had some tea and crackers. As soon as the 

crackers came the company took one— the great big baby began 

to cry out, “She has taken the very biggest.” His mamma was 

ashamed and said, “ Oh, you must not do that, let the little lady 

have whichever she wants,” and so she got him to be quiet. 

76 


The Big Bahy 


11 


As he was going across the room, he tripped on the carpet and 
fell down, not very hard, but it hurt him a little. At once he 
screamed out, “Boo-hoo, hoo-hoo, hoo-hoo!” “Why,” said all 
the people, “he is nothing but a baby after all!” His mamma 
would not let him wear long trousers any more. 

There was a little girl there too. Her name was Tu-tu; she 
was too too sweet. She was very little, but she was very nice, 
and as she came into the room, she pushed aside the curtain, 
and as it was quite dark and the sliding door was half open, 
she bumped her little nose against the door and the blood began 
to flow. It hurt, too, very much. Do you think she cried? 
No indeed! she got out her pocket handkerchief as quick as she 
could and put it up so that the blood would not go on the floor 
or on her clean dress. Of course the tears came into her eyes, 
but that is not crying, you know, and in a few minutes the 
blood stopped. Then she handed around the cake to all the 
ladies. The ladies and gentlemen all took some, and when 
they were flnished there was not one bit left for Tu-tu. But 
she said, “ Oh, no matter, I will have some another time.” The 
people said, “What a nice little girl! I wish she could come to 
lunch with my little boy,” and another said, “I haven’t any 
little children, but I do wish Tu-tu would come to see me.” 
Her mamma said to Tu-tu, “Well, you have behaved so nicely 
that you can go, for I know you will be good.” So Tu-tu went 


l.ofC. 


78 


Monkey Shines 


to see all the visitors at their houses. And she played with all 
the children and they rode the hobby horse and had ice cream, 
not too much but just enough. The big baby boy wasn’t in- 
vited at all. That was too bad. However, when he got older, 
he got wiser, just like you and me. 





DEC 2 mk 





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